Baby Blog @ BabyNames.com

In this ongoing update, we’ll fill you in on the latest in gear, gadgets, and new ideas that can make caring for your baby safer, more efficient, or more fun.

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“You've seen how your baby's legs start moving with excitement,” says Fisher-Price. “Now those kicks can lead to something even more exciting and special, with musical rewards, dancing lights and adorable friends.”

The Kick and Play Piano can attach to the crib, or be played on the floor. Your baby can “build a song by kicking and tapping the keys.” The soft piano keys easily respond to baby's kicks and touch, FP adds, and the colorful lights dance in time to the music.

To the best of my knowledge, Albert Einstein was not a notorious safari adventurer. Nonetheless, the fine folks at Baby Einstein advise you “Send your baby to the jungle and back in the Safari Adventure Gym and Tunnel.”

The 4.5-foot long creative play space “provides a padded, roomy environment promoting three fun ways to play,” the company adds: “tummy time, sitting and crawling, with plenty of padded crawling space for babies to explore.” The tunnel mat “mixes in real-life imagery with vivid colors and 3 languages to enhance your baby’s sense of discovery.”

There are also a sun rattle, leaf-shaped teether, and a ring rattle with beads and extra links.

The Wonder Whale Kicks and Giggles Gym comes with a water-filled pat mat, a tummy time bolster, and four linkable activity toys for “baby-activated fun.” It all makes for “a playful way to help improve motor skills and teach cause-and-effect,” the company adds.

“Say goodbye to guesswork,” say the designers of a “smarter baby monitor that senses, learns and predicts.”

Worn around your baby's ankle, the Sproutling monitors heart rate, skin temperature and body movement, and also tracks the room temperature, and humidity. The data is sent to your phone where the app creates simplified notifications. The wearable band, a smart charger, and a mobile app “work together to monitor, learn and predict your baby's sleep habits and optimal sleep conditions.” It will let you know “if your baby is sleeping soundly or if something is wrong.”

Most baby monitors are simply “poor extensions of a parent's eyes or ears,” the company adds “and require constant attention to see if the baby is moving or making noise. So we set out to create a more effective monitor — one that helps parents know how their baby is doing when she's not moving or making noise, and at the times when a parent can’t pay full attention to a monitor.” Using the app on your phone, “you can check up on your baby anywhere, anytime.”